The first official game won't be played on Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium until next week, but the newly renovated facility hosted its first major event Thursday night.

Brady Fredericksen @brady_fred

LAKELAND — The first official game won’t be played on Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium until next week, but the newly renovated facility hosted its first major event Thursday night.

Gov. Rick Scott joined Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred at the annual Governor’s Baseball Dinner. Serving as a kickoff to the Grapefruit League season, the dinner featured prominent faces from both the community and other teams that spend their springs training in Florida.

“Today is a big day for Florida, we announced that 112 million tourists came here last year,” Scott said. “A lot of them came here for spring training.”

The $48 million renovation of Joker Marchant Stadium was a primary topic of discussion.

About 300 people attended the outdoor dinner held on the cement patio covered by a tent off right field. The big new scoreboard was playing video highlights of great moments in baseball history as temperatures sat in the mid-50s on a breezy, clear night.

The raised speakers' platform from where Scott and others spoke was set up so that the newly renovated stadium provided a backdrop for the audience of former Detroit Tigers and prominent local people to see.

While Tigers’ players have been using their new and improved facility since Tuesday, a tour on Thursday provided a glimpse at one of baseball’s newest spring training facility.

Manfred, Major League Baseball’s boss, came away impressed.

“What a fabulous job they did on this renovation and this ball park,” he said at a news conference following the tour. “I think this one is a great example of that charm. It is a credit to state and local authorities that they continue making investments in products like this.”

Though baseball and the renovations occupied much of the discussion, the governor kept to a theme of tourism throughout his short time on stage.

Scott has gone back and forth with the Florida House over the past week after members of the House Careers and Competition Subcommittee voted 10-5 to kill a pair of state tourism programs.

The House leadership, led by Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran, has been critical of two tourism-boosting entities, Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida, due to the politics behind the scenes; mainly their ability to pick and choose what they fund with state money.

Those programs differ from Visit Central Florida in Auburndale — which works closely with both Lakeland and the Tigers, as well as with other cities and towns in Polk County — because funding comes from the 5 percent bed tax on all overnight stays of six months or less at Polk County accommodations.

“If you don’t live in Florida, my job is to ask you to spend every dime you have while you’re here,” Scott joked. “Spend your money.”

— Brady Fredericksen can be reached at brady.fredericksen@theledger.com or 863-802-7553. Follow him on Twitter: @Brady_Fred.